These 15 pieces of old technology contain a mind-boggling number of parts

Todd McLellan
Canadian photographer Todd McLellan says he grew up in a home where "something was always open."

His father was a carpenter and TV repairman and his mother an electrical technician, so everyone in the family learned to take things apart and put them back together. It's no surprise that McLellan became fascinated by the mechanical inner-workings of everyday objects: toasters, watches, coffee grinders.

Now 39, he has transformed that hobby into an ongoing photography series in which he takes ordinary pieces of technology, from salt and pepper mills to old Macintosh computers, lays out the guts of each object, and captures all the components in one shot.

McLellan started the series as a way to celebrate the mechanics of old technology. "As I'm taking it apart, if I press this button, I know it presses that lever, and you can actually see that happen," he tells Tech Insider.

Salt and pepper mills
Todd McLellan

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Newer technology doesn't offer the same tactile satisfaction, he says. "You press the button and its goes into the circuit board, and then it makes something on the screen do something. You can't really place how that happened."

Old Russian watch
Todd McLellan

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The actual process of disassembly takes roughly a day and a half. For complex electronics, like a Walkman, the trickiest part is keeping everything organized.

Walkman
Todd McLellan

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Arranging the pieces takes another day or two, McLellan says, because he likes to group similar parts together. Combing through each one can be time-consuming.

Soviet rangefinder camera
Todd McLellan

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One trick he's picked up over the years is to start arranging the largest pieces first, which are typically the cases or main units of a device.

Rotary telephone
Todd McLellan

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From there he extends outward, adding the tiny wires, screws, washers, and bolts.

Radio
Todd McLellan

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His largest project was a piano, which took five days to take apart and arrange.

Piano
Todd McLellan

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McLellan says one of his greatest joys in doing the project is giving people newfound appreciation for the hidden complexity of seemingly simple products.

Watch
Todd McLellan

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"People walk by and say 'Oh wow, I didn't know that was in there," he explains. "I kind of took that for granted. People don't know what's inside. They just use things."

Toilet
Todd McLellan

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McLellan's favorite disassemblies change on a near-daily basis, he says. Right now it's his most recent project, an old-school coffee grinder.

Coffee grinder
Todd McLellan

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Though he still keeps the old Macintosh close to his heart.

Macintosh computer
Todd McLellan

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While most disassemblies are fairly smooth, some projects have given him a bit of trouble.

Electric mixer
Todd McLellan

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Early video game systems — like the Nintendo NDS, for example — came with two screens, each with several different layers. "It just becomes a bunch of different rectangles throughout the composition and not enough guts to it," he says.

Scale
Todd McLellan

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Simpler items, like toasters, are far more reliable in the range of parts they contain.

Toaster
Todd McLellan

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And some, like old-fashioned typewriters, are so complex that they're not just lessons in industrial design, but true works of art.